Nothing Is All About Remixing OnePlus' Formula From Geeks To Fashionista

OnePlus is a brand that was born and propelled because of the fanfare that was generated by geeks. OnePlus phones attracted enthusiasts. It attracted the hacker mentality. And Carl Pei and his team cultivated this mentality and milked it to no end. This was what was the foundation of the OnePlus brand.

They did this by providing cutting edge specifications on Android phones at half the price of what the so-called flagship phones were being sold at the time — in 2013. Then the software puzzle was unique to OnePlus. They adopted CyanogenMod which was a fork of Android loved by modders.

It also created a hype machine as the OnePlus phones were initially sold via an invite. Being invited was like a badge of honour and it was a big deal.

With Oxygen OS they brought the software in-house but continued on the fundamentals of CyanogenMod. Oxygen OS was fast, hyper fast — felt smoother than even what Google offered with the Nexus line of phones at the time.

But year on year, OnePlus raised the price of their devices. They did tie ups with Marvel for the Avengers, they tied up with Lucasfilm for Star Wars: The Last Jedi and eventually even tied up with McLaren, the legendary F1 team.

But as the prices started to rise, OnePlus was answerable to a higher standard. Even by 2021, when the Hasselblad partnership was revealed the OnePlus 9 couldn’t measure up to a standard that the likes of Apple, Google, Samsung, Huawei and even Xiaomi had managed to achieve.

The cool wasn’t working as OnePlus was not an upstart anymore. It had to scale and it didn’t have much of a business in the US market. The cat was also out of the bag that it was backed by BBK — the Chinese conglomerate that was behind Oppo, Vivo, Realme.

Why The Nothing Way Is Better?

By the end of 2020, Carl Pei left OnePlus to start Nothing. The last thing he did was to create the Nord brand which was launched with great pomp.

With Nothing Pei is not making the same mistake as he did with OnePlus. He has started off premium. There was a rejection of the notion that OnePlus had become a premium brand. This was despite it becoming the 2nd largest premium smartphone seller in India.

Nothing has no pretentiousness about having a hacker mentality, even though underneath there is a steely hacker like grit to its products. These products have been iterated at a rapid pace — a velocity unseen from a new smartphone company. It seems as if they are backed by a big benefactor.

Sure, it counts Qualcomm as one its investors and in its latest round of funding has raised another $96 million in capital. It counts Teenage Engineering as its partners and but overall it has an array of celebrities as its investors who belong more at fashion shows than a tech conference.

With the glyph lights and minimal design language and premium outtake — Pei has shifted gears from nerds to the cool kids in the fashion space. In the case of the Phone (2) it has compromised on the processor slightly. With a OnePlus not having the latest flagship processor from Qualcomm was unimaginable.

Here the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 is more than good enough. My review says it is good enough. It is the right chip for most people. The fashion crowd cares about how the phone looks — and damn this phone looks interesting. It makes a statement and that’s what fashion is all about. This Pei achieved with the Phone (1) and it has been dialled up to 11 with the Phone (2).

But he is retaining the great bits of OnePlus. Like the fast and smooth user experience — almost an iPhone-like “it just works” mantra. Why? Because the folk in the fashion space use an iPhone. They aren’t into specs, they want a device that looks good, they can flaunt and of course it should be from something that is a cool and premium brand.

That’s why Nothing sells its earbuds on Myntra. It is the place where people come to purchase clothes. It counts Swedish House Mafia as its investors. They have also designed a Glyph composer which is a drum machine of sorts that allows one to create beats synced up with Glyph lights which can be used in notifications. Music of course is also a huge part of fashion culture so the merging of that is obvious. OnePlus tried to do this with the OnePlus music festival in 2019 when they brought down Katy Perry and Dua Lipa — but that music wasn’t in line with their audience.

Don’t be surprised if Nothing leans into music more broadly — that too electronic music especially since as a brand its first product was the Ear (1) and it counts Swedish House Mafia as its investors.

Pei has remixed the OnePlus formula — stripped it of the rough edges and affordability quotient and created something new. It has the best bits of OnePlus, but with shiny new elements that are creating hype.

But it carries along one major weakness of OnePlus — the cameras. The Phone (2) is an impressive leap but still it lags the competition. Cameras can’t be fixed over time. You need tons of data and which only comes by selling phones the way Apple and Samsung do. And the way Nothing devices are designed — they aren’t for everyone, but for this cool fashion focused millennial genZ crowd.

Pei is probably betting that camera tech on phones has become so good that the difference between the best and the excellent is narrow. He is probably right — but it is also the sole fact apart from foldable screens that allows brands to raise the price and ASP of their products.

He doesn’t have the camera tech and he’s already said that foldables will not happen anytime soon. So is this sustainable? If yes, how?

Android’s Maturity Makes Differentiation Hard

Well, because the market has changed. In the early 2010s, the Android market was all about specs. Every manufacturer also had their own unique user experience with their skins which dramatically changed how a device performed. That changed as Android matured as a platform.

Everything is a little more commoditised. And that’s why doubling down on the brand is correct. Creating a reality distortion of cool around design is the best way to build the brand.

That’s why the foldables are taking off, especially the clamshell ones like the Galaxy Flip and Moto Razr. They lean into design.

And that’s why Nothing is hitting all the right notes -- with a robust product that is cool. It can appeal to geeks but will certainly appeal to the fashionista.

OnePlus had matured so much, that pivot towards a fashion/ lifestyle play wasn’t possible. With Nothing, Pei has a blank new slate!

Also Read: Nothing Phone (2) Review: Oodles of cool but with a pinch of salt